In general, the present invention concerns a device and method for precise replacement of liquid, or a component in a liquid mixture, before, during or after operation of a mechanism, including where the volume of an incoming liquid displaces and delivers an exact replacement ratio or volume of outgoing liquid, which may be augmented by a makeup volume of liquid that may be delivered without regard to an incoming liquid. The invention, as may be appropriate, can particularly concern multiple units of the device; delivery of multiple, separate liquids; various rates of replacement; topping up of expended liquids and/or their additives; use of vacuum force from operation of the mechanism to induce replacement; and/or use of pneumatic and/or mechanical actuated force to induce replacement.
Selby, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,068, discloses a device for precise replacements of liquids, before, during, or after operation of a mechanism with method of use thereof. Selby et al., in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/980,005, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,196, discloses a bag-containing device for precise replacement of liquid before, during, or after operation of a mechanism, and method of its use. The specifications of the Selby ""068 patent and Selby et al. ""005 utility patent application are incorporated herein by reference.
In general, a problem in the art is that internal combustion engines, automatic transmissions, and other mechanisms may lose oil, automatic transmission fluid, or other liquid lubricant. This volume of lubricant lost is not accounted for by the aforementioned precise replacement devices and methods.
It would be desirable to overcome or ameliorate this problem.
The instant invention provides a device for precise replacement of liquid, which may be augmented by makeup or be for makeup alone, in general, which device can comprise boundaries for at least one incoming liquid volume and at least one exiting liquid volume, and between or among the incoming and exiting liquid volumes at least one pressure-transmitting barrier. The makeup augmentation can comprise a contrivance for expelling a liquid not regulated by an incoming liquid. Multiple units of the device; delivery of multiple, separate liquids; various rates of replacement; topping up of expended liquids and/or their additives; use of vacuum force from operation of the mechanism to induce replacement; and/or use of pneumatic, hydraulic and/or mechanical actuated force to induce replacement, can be provided as or in conjunction with the device. The invention provides further for a method for precise replacement with optional makeup of a liquid in a mechanism by operation of the device, which may occur before, during or after operation of the mechanism.
The invention is useful in replacement and/or maintenance of fluids, especially liquid lubricants, in mechanisms. Thus, the invention is useful in liquid-handling and more poignantly in lubrication of the mechanism.
Significantly hereby, liquid lubricants not only can be replaced and/or components thereof added with precision based upon intake of used liquid but also can be augmented to make up for any loss thereof. Notably, this can be provided for or occur during normal operation of the mechanism, for example, during the driving of a motor vehicle. As well, this goes along with the fact that lubricants and other fluids used in various mechanisms are seldom provided without some beneficial additives. Following upon this, for one thing, the present invention amplifies the contributions made by these additives by making it possible to inject more than that which would otherwise be present in the normal replacement fluid, thus increasing oxidation resistance, antiwear behavior, and so forth. Moreover, since the exact incremental replacement of a well used oil may only provide the level of additive content of a new oil, is is advantageous to use the replacing fluid to add higher levels of particular additives to upgrade the used oil even further. Beneficially thus, mechanisms such as internal combustion engines, automatic transmissions, gear boxes, and so forth can have their critical lubrication fluids intermittently if not constantly maintained or improved so as to engender longer service lives for the lubricating fluids and in turn the mechanisms.
Numerous further advantages attend the invention.